Scholars and sceptics
Anthropologists, historians and investigators who study magic and test its claims.
Scholars and sceptics are the people who study magic from outside the practice: anthropologists, historians, folklorists, psychologists, scholars of religion and investigators who test claims. They have names such as E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Marcel Mauss, Bronislaw Malinowski, Mary Douglas, Keith Thomas and Carlo Ginzburg, and also investigators such as James Randi. This page covers what they have found, how they disagree, and what their work has cost and changed. Their work has changed how the whole subject is understood.
Early theories
Nineteenth-century writers such as James Frazer treated magic as a mistaken early science, a view now widely rejected as arrogant and inaccurate. Later anthropologists, including Evans-Pritchard in his 1937 study of the Azande, showed that magical belief can be a consistent way of reasoning about misfortune. Mauss and Malinowski stressed its social role. Fieldwork, archives, laboratory studies and surveys are their main methods, and each field has its own debates and schools.
The history of witch trials
Historians have revised their view of the witch trials. Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlane studied English village accusations, Carlo Ginzburg found the benandanti in Friuli, and Ronald Hutton has argued about the numbers and causes, and Silvia Federici links the persecution to the rise of capitalism, a thesis historians dispute. The older figure of nine million victims has been dropped, and estimates now run to tens of thousands of executions.
Testing claims
Sceptics test whether claims hold up. James Randi offered a prize for evidence of paranormal power that was never won, and organisations such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry investigate fraud. Researchers study why people believe: pattern-seeking, uncertainty and the wish to control events. The best sceptics aim to understand people, not to mock them. Sceptics hold that claims should be tested, and they have a long record of exposing cases such as spirit photography and fake healers.
Ethics of study
Scholars were often colonial officials or missionaries, and their reports shaped how Indigenous religions were named. Contemporary researchers work with communities, ask consent and respect closed knowledge. Practitioners sometimes object to being explained, and sceptics sometimes to being called closed-minded. The conversation continues, and this guide aims to stay neutral on whether magic works. Their critics reply that science cannot measure everything that matters to a community, and that explaining a ritual away is not the same as understanding it.
Scholars and sceptics on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland and 4 moreTrial by combat
A medieval legal practice where two disputants fought to settle a caseRite 路 Cursing and harm Historical
馃嚠馃嚦 India and 2 moreTrial by ordeal
An ancient judicial test where a dangerous physical trial determined guilt or innocenceRite 路 Cursing and harm Historical
馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomPricking
A method used during European witch trials to locate a supposed insensitive mark on an accused person.Rite 路 Cursing and harm Historical
馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland and 4 moreWinter solstice
The shortest day and longest night of the year, marked by rites of solar returnTradition 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Protection Living
馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomBeltane Fire Festival
A modern Edinburgh performance celebrating the start of summer with fire and danceRite 路 Wonder and entertainment 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚝馃嚠 Finland and 5 moreMolybdomancy
A divination method using molten metal poured into water to read omensRite 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Cursing and harm Living
馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 7 moreSaint Andrew's Day
A Christian feast day marked by national holidays in Scotland and Romania, and folk divination across Europe.Rite 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚠馃嚜 IrelandTailteann Games脕enach Tailteann
Ancient Irish funeral games and assemblies held in County Meath to honor the dead.Rite 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Luck and prosperity Historical
馃嚞馃嚪 GreeceSacred mysteries渭蠀蟽蟿萎蟻喂慰谓
Secret ceremonies and divine doctrines held to exceed human reasonBelief 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Change and initiation Living
馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 3 moreCruentation
A medieval judicial test where a suspect touched a victim's body to see if it bled.Rite 路 Cursing and harm Historical
馃嚝馃嚪 FranceLoudun possessionsaffaire des poss茅d茅es de Loudun
A 17th-century witchcraft trial in France involving alleged demonic possession by Ursuline nuns.Belief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Cruentation: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Trial by ordeal: James Sibree, Public domain, source
- Pricking: Heinrichkramer, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Winter solstice: Image by Przemyslaw " Blueshade " Idzkiewicz, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Beltane Fire Festival: Stefan Sch盲fer, Lich, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Molybdomancy: Micha L. Rieser, Attribution, source
- Loudun possessions: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Tailteann Games: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Sacred mysteries: Johannes Hopffe, Public domain, source
- Saint Andrew's Day: Henryk Siemiradzki, Public domain, source
- Trial by combat: J枚rg Breu der J眉ngere (died 1547), Paulus Hector Mair (died 1579), Public domain, source